In today’s digital landscape, live sports streaming has become an integral part of the sports industry. It connects fans around the world to their favourite teams and events. Thus, catering to the soaring demand for high-quality, immersive experiences where viewers can witness every exhilarating moment in real time. However, this pursuit of low-latency streaming has presented a significant challenge for sport club owners and broadcasters. Traditional transcoding solutions, despite their importance, often introduce substantial delays that lead to frustration among viewers.

Research shows that even a few seconds of delay can lead to a significant drop in viewer interest and participation. Picture this: you’re an avid fan watching a thrilling basketball game between two rival teams, hoping to witness every dunk, buzzer-beater, and game-changing moment as it unfolds. But as you cheer along with the crowd, you suddenly hear the roar from your neighbour’s house, indicating a critical moment in the game that you have yet to witness. The live stream on your screen is lagging behind the real-time action, and you can’t help but feel disconnected from the excitement.

The delayed streaming experience diminishes the thrill and spontaneity of sports. It prevents you from engaging in real-time discussions and debates with fellow fans, as you are perpetually playing catch-up. Furthermore, the delay can inadvertently expose your viewers to spoilers, leaving them frustrated and robbed of the element of surprise.

The problem of latency in live sports streaming is a significant barrier that hampers the overall enjoyment and social interaction that sports fans crave. To address this pressing issue and provide a solution that meets the demands of both viewers and broadcasters, we have created a MaelStrom Live.

Why MaelStrom Live is the solution you need?

Jet-Stream’s MaelStrom Live offers a unique hybrid transcoding solution that addresses the challenges of low latency in event broadcasting. It operates on the Jet-Stream Cloud platform and leverages the powerful NETINT T408 transcoders to deliver an ultra-low latency service with just a few hundred milliseconds of delay. By employing MaelStrom Live, you can provide a near-real-time viewing experience to your audiences:

1. Regular transcoding

MaelStrom Live comes equipped with regular transcoding. It is meticulously tuned to meet the industry’s high standards for live video quality. By leveraging this feature, you can deliver an immersive and visually stunning experience to viewers. And without compromising on the quality of the broadcast-grade picture.

2. Extreme sports-optimised transcoding

For sports with fast-paced action and intricate details, such as extreme sports, the extreme sports setting in MaelStrom Live can be enabled. This setting enhances the image quality, ensuring that viewers can witness every thrilling moment with utmost clarity. Whether it’s a high-speed snowboarding trick or a gravity-defying motocross jump, extreme sports optimization captures the essence of the action in stunning detail without significant effect on latency.

3. Ultra-low-latency option

By leveraging the power of hardware acceleration, MaelStrom Live achieves a transcoding delay of just a few frames. This means that viewers can experience sports events almost in real time, enabling them to react and engage with the action as it unfolds. Usually, if you select a lot of bitrates, it significantly adds latency. However, with MaelStrom Live, the added delay will be sub-second. Despite the minimal delay, MaelStrom Live ensures that the high-quality image is maintained, providing viewers with a seamless and captivating viewing experience.

While ultra-low latency is often associated with high costs, MaelStrom Live proves to be three times more cost-effective than competitors on generic clouds. With charges as low as €0,02 per output minute for webcasts and €0,005 per output minute for a 24/7 TV channel, it offers an affordable option without compromising on quality. Moreover, MaelStrom Live utilizes scene optimization techniques to minimize bandwidth costs while ensuring excellent image quality. This combination of competitive pricing and optimized performance makes MaelStrom Live an exceptional choice for delivering low-latency live streaming experiences. For more details on pricing, further information can be found here.

Try MaelStrom Live today and enable your viewers to stay connected to the live event, participate in real-time discussions, and avoid spoilers. See the difference yourself!

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